Almost one-third of Australia’s top 100 chief executives received no bonus in the 2020 financial year, with their total pay falling to the lowest levels in well over a decade as their companies responded to Covid-19.
But termination payments soared and one executive broke a record.
The annual Australian Council of Superannuation Investors CEO pay report released this week revealed the nation’s biggest companies had mostly shown restraint as the pandemic took hold.
That’s in stark contrast with 10 years ago in the shadows of the global financial crisis, when executives were being showered with big bonuses and termination payments despite many companies delivering negative returns to shareholders, ACSI chief executive Louise Davidson noted.
For CEOs who did receive a bonus last financial year, the median still amounted to $1.14m.
That’s a staggering amount for the average earner to contemplate, but it’s the lowest in ACSI’s 10 years of data.
With lower and less frequent bonuses, the median cash pay for Australia’s top 100 bosses fell 26.4 per cent to $1.98m, the lowest level since the 2003 financial year.
It was a good year to leave the helm of a top 100 company, however, with the average termination payment soaring 58 per cent to $2.07m.
Mick McCormack, who headed gas infrastructure business APA Group, pocketed $6.59m, the highest termination payment since fiscal 2015.
The next highest at just under $5m was received by another long-serving CEO, Oil Search’s Peter Botten, who has become AGL Energy’s new chairman as part of a radical restructure.
Realised pay – cash salary plus the value of equity that vested during the year – soared past $40m for the first time, with Paul Perreault, who leads biotech giant CSL, enjoying an eye-watering improvement from $30.53m for the previous 12 months.
The 20 highest-paid ASX200 CEOs on a realised-pay basis in FY20:
1. Paul Perreault, CSL $43.04m
2. Bill Beament, Northern Star Resources, $31.78m
3. Greg Goodman, Goodman Group, $26.86m
4. Shemara Wikramanayake, Macquarie Group, $16.39m
5. Jake Klein, Evolution Mining, $15.84m
6. Brad Banducci, Woolworths Group, $12.67m
7. Jean-Sebastien Jacques, Rio Tinto $11.87m
8. Michael Clarke, Treasury Wine Estates, $11.3m
9. Kevin Gallagher, Santos, $11.04m
10. Sandeep Biswas, Newcrest Mining, $10.98m
11. Andrew Barkla, IDP Education, $10.89m
12. Alan Joyce, Qantas Airways, $10.74m
13. Graham Kerr, South32, $10.68m
14. Vincent English, Megaport, $10.35m
15. Julian Pemberton, NRW Holdings, $10.23m
16. Mark McInnes, Premier Investments, $8.8m
17. Scott Charlton, Transurban Group, $8.47m
18. Philippe Wolgen, Clinuvel Pharmaceuticals, $8.2m
19. Andrew Bassat, SEEK, $7.8m
20. Magnus Nicolin, Ansell, $7.47m.
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